All posts tagged ‘libraries’

You can’t have too much of a good thing, unless you’re averse to bliss. One of life’s Very Good Things, in my book (pun!) is the library. There’s a movement afoot to augment our public libraries with other ways of spreading bookish goodwill. This doesn’t just get books into more hands, it actually builds positive networks between people and strengthens our communities.

Roaming Libraries

One unique venture is BookCrossings. Started in 2001, it’s a read and release method of sharing books. Once you’ve read and enjoyed a book, simply go online to print out a label, then leave your book in a public place like a coffee shop, hair salon, playground, or doctor’s office. The label assures others the book is free to anyone interested. The label also contains a code so readers can track and follow books as they are read, discussed, and released again elsewhere in the world. Currently over 8 million books are traveling through 132 countries.

Read about more kinds of tiny libraries in Laura Grace Weldon’s post on GeekMom.

Ironically, Hurricane Irene caused most of its damage after it wasn’t even a Tropical Storm any more. It’s one thing to get long, hard rains when you live in a coastal area, but it’s quite another when you live far enough from open water that the rain simply builds up because it has no place to go. That’s what happened in parts of the northeastern United States, particularly in Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont.

There’s plenty of damage in those areas that needs fixing, and relief organizations and federal, state, and local governments are working hard to make sure people have safe and healthy places to live and clean water to drink, and such. But there’s plenty of damage that’s being largely overlooked because it doesn’t put anyone’s life in danger. We at GeekDad, via a tweet from science fiction writer John Scalzi, just heard about one such case.

Back in April, we told you about fantasy author James A. Owen’s ebook, Drawing Out the Dragons; Owen has recently launched a Kickstarter project to raise funds for a print edition. Owen explains that although the ebook (available in PDF form as well as in formats for mobile devices and ereaders such as the Nook and Kindle) is popular, he has had requests from readers wishing for a hard-copy version to give as a graduation present or just to lend to others. He is also concerned that independent booksellers, who have been very supportive of him and his books, are losing out on sales by not being able to distribute the electronic version of the book.

Drawing Out the Dragons is essentially a print version of the presentation that Owen has given in speaking engagements with many schools and literary groups over the past few years, detailing his career and the events of his life that shaped him, presented in an inspiring and motivational way.

Owen promises a quality product:

The paperback will be on heavy, acid-free, cream colored stock, with illustrated endflaps; and the hardcover will have a dustjacket and specially designed endpapers, where a personal message can be inscribed for the recipient.

By the time Alice Ozma was nine years old, she had gotten used to having her father read stories to her. But her father, an elementary school librarian, worried that pretty soon she would declare herself too old for stories, as her older sister did years before. So they made a pact: he would read to her every night for at least ten minutes, before midnight. They disagree on whether it started with a goal of one hundred days but it eventually increased to a thousand.

“The Streak” hit the thousand-day goal and kept going … eventually lasting for nine years, until Alice left for college.

The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared is her story. Although it begins with the story of their reading pact, the book actually covers a lot of other things as well: celebrating thunderstorms and spiders, an irrational fear that JFK’s corpse is below her on the bottom bunk, learning to ride a bike, shopping for a prom dress with a single father who just doesn’t get it. There is tragedy, like when her mother leaves on Thanksgiving Day while her dad is out raking in the backyard. There is comedy — the way their cat prefers her dad’s rough handling and verbal abuse to her own gentle and practiced petting. But throughout it all, tying it all together, is the nightly ritual that they share, one that, for a long time, she wasn’t able to really explain to anyone else. Continue Reading “The Reading Promise: A Father, a Daughter, and Nine Years of Storytime” »

According to the United States of Shame chart, I live in the nerdiest state.

I’ve always belonged to the Sisterhood of Obscure Interests. Membership naturally seems to include awkward, shy, and unattractive moments (or decades). But it makes life more interesting. For example, when I accidentally bashed my head on a shelf at the library today I “saw stars” and promptly ruminated on what visual cortex misfire might have caused those stars.

Already jazzed, I checked out what allegedly makes Ohioans nerdier than everyone else. Turns out, we have more library visits per capita library than any other state.Huzzah!

[Read Laura Grace Weldon’s paean to libraries in its entirety at GeekMom!]

For the last few years, James A. Owen has been turning out volumes of his fantasy series, The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, beginning with Here, There Be Dragons in 2006 and following up with Search for the Red Dragon, The Indigo King, The Shadow Dragons, and The Dragon’s Apprentice. The sixth and seventh books in the series, The Dragons of Winter and The First Dragon, are due in October of 2012 and 2013 respectively. A film adaptation is in development, and the series is an exciting one for young readers, especially those with some knowledge of the classics; at various points, characters from stories by writers such as Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, James Barrie, and the Brothers Grimm pass through, as do the authors themselves. William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, Daniel DeFoe, J.R.R. Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis share the stage with Captain Nemo and the Pied Piper of Hamlin, among many others in this sprawling adventure based on the simple premise that “it’s all true.” The Imaginarium Geographica is a book of maps showing the location of every imaginary land from Oz to Lilliput, which certain “caretakers” (whose names you will recognize) must safeguard from evil forces.

In addition to his work on the novels, which he also lavishly illustrates, Owen is much in demand as a speaker for schools, libraries and educational events across the country, but he spends very little time during his presentation talking about his work, preferring to use the time to inspire the young audience, encouraging them to take their own leaps of imagination and creativity. He has now distilled the essence of this presentation down into a new book, Drawing Out the Dragons, which he has published under his own imprint, Coppervale International, as an ebook. It is available in PDF, epub, Nook and Kindle versions, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the Coppervale website.

Owen has taken it a step further; he has partnered with Kids Need to Read, a non-profit organization founded by author PJ Haarsma and actor Nathan Fillion to promote literacy; he is using his ebook as a fundraising program for the organization. Beyond that, he has decided to give away free copies to any librarians that request it, and has given them permission to give away print copies to children that they feel need it. The details are available on his blog, The Wonder Cabinet.

You’ve got to hand it to librarians: they have got their stuff together. Some of the most tech-savvy people I engage with on Twitter are librarians and they know that learning and literacy are so much more than books. GeekDad readers are well aware that libraries are places that not only foster learning, but have long harbored all kinds of geeky habits and interests. So, it will be no surprise that the American Library Association is building on previous success and will have over 1800 locations and tens of thousands of people playing board games and role-playing games this Saturday, November 13.

National Gaming Day at your library promises games of all types. Libraries will offer a variety of activities throughout the day, including modern board games, traditional games (such as chess and checkers) and two national video game tournaments that will pit players at dozens of libraries against each other for bragging rights to the ultimate Rock Band and Super Smash Bros. Brawl crowns.

The success of the national day has now crossed borders with libraries all over the world signing up to be a part of the event which is not just about playing games, but focusing on how games bring people together and libraries as a social and community hub. Some libraries in France, Portugal, Canada and Argentina will also be participating.

A simpler time, when kids played outdoors and parents weren’t burdened with concerns like whether superheroes were bad for their kids or if their car seats actually kept their kids safe. Yep, back then all you needed was a couple large cardboard boxes and a utility knife to build your own car seat. None of this fancy five-point harness LATCH-system fancy-schmancy business. Just a semi-solid seat that raised your kid up high enough to fly out the windshield in a head-on collision.

This gem is one of many from Awful Library Books — click through to see the full page, from a 1974 book entitled Nomadic Furniture. Mary and Holly are librarians from Michigan who love to collect interesting specimens from libraries, and there are some incredible finds, often submitted by readers.

For $2.99 a year, RenewBot will automatically log in to your library’s website and renew books before they’re due. It will also monitor items that you’ve requested and estimate the amount of time before you’re at the head of the queue.

You can set up alerts for things that are due via text message or e-mail, and there are lots of different options for customizing the alerts. (Of course, eventually you will have to return things to the library, and Renewbot can’t help you with that … yet.)

While they don’t have every library in the country yet, you can input your zip code and it will tell you whether your library’s available. And if not, you can enter your e-mail address and they promise to add your library within 24 hours! (Not sure how they manage that, but it’s an impressive claim.)

The best part? RenewBot gives you a two month free trial, with no automatic credit card charge when the trial period is up. Instead, if you decide not to pay (or forget to cancel), your account automatically expires after the trial period is up. So it’s really a risk-free deal.

Wired: For only three bucks a year, RenewBot will help you avoid overdue fees at the library.

Tired: Renewbot will not come to your house, find non-renewable items, and physically take them to the library for you.